vital
- 1Very important; essential to the success of something or to achieving a particular goal.
Strong communication is vital to the success of any large project.
Securing that contract was vital for the company's survival through the downturn.
Similaressential, crucial, critical, key, necessary
Oppositeunimportant, unnecessary, inessential, trivial
Note
Importance is measured here against life itself: whatever a goal cannot do without is spoken of as if survival hung on it. The adjective takes several constructions. It can be followed by a that-clause (it is vital that you don't forget) or by to with a verb (vital to counter terrorism), and it can stand before a noun (a vital component, the vital rail link). Crucial is its closest partner, while necessary and significant sound milder.
- 2Necessary for something to continue to exist or carry on.
Access to clean water is vital to the region's continued existence.
These wetlands are vital to the survival of countless migratory birds.
Similaressential, necessary, crucial, indispensable, critical
Oppositeunnecessary, inessential, dispensable
- 3Necessary for life to continue; being a part of the body on which life directly depends.
A single fragment had pierced one of his vital organs.
The surgeon carefully avoided the patient's vital structures during the operation.
Note
The physical core of the word survives in vital organ: the brain counts as one because life stops without it. Conan Doyle's The Poison Belt (1913) calls the air Challenger gulps "the vital gas", and Spenser's "vitall food" in The Faerie Queene (1590) is food that keeps a body alive. In these phrases the literal meaning holds, which keeps them apart from the everyday "very important" sense.
- 4Relating to or characteristic of life and the processes of living things.
The philosopher wrote about a vital force animating all living things.
Researchers tracked the vital activity of the bacteria over several days.
Note
The root meaning of the whole family: Middle English and Old French vital, from Latin vītālis, "of life, life-giving", built on vīta, "life", and vīvō, "I live". Quick and jiva are doublets from the same source. The adjective names what belongs to life itself, as in vital functions and vital energies, and Tennyson's "vital spirits" in In Memoriam (1850) carries the older picture of animating spirits within the body.
- 5
- 6Invigorating; giving or restoring life and energy.
The spring rains brought vital moisture to the parched fields.
Sunlight is a vital, life-giving force for the whole forest.
Similarlife-giving, invigorating, refreshing
- 7Relating to the official recording of life events such as births, marriages, and deaths.
The county clerk maintains vital records dating back to 1850.
Demographers rely on vital statistics to track birth and death rates.
Note
Here the word stays close to its Latin root: vītālis meant simply "of life", from vīta. That closeness makes the phrase easy to misread. Vital records are not records of great importance, as the "very important" meaning would suggest. They are the certificates that mark the milestones of a person's existence, and the word describes what they document rather than how much they matter.
- 8Capable of living; in a condition able to sustain life; viable.
Tests showed the embryo was vital and developing normally.
Farmers separate the vital seeds from those that will never germinate.
Similarviable
Note
Old medicine asked whether a newborn could survive, and this is the word it answered with. Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica reports Pythagoras and Hippocrates "affirming the birth of the seventh month to be vital". The meaning is "able to go on living", and viable is its exact equivalent. Either word can describe a birth, an embryo or a seed.
- 9Containing life within it; living rather than inert.
The microscope revealed vital organisms swimming in the pond water.
They debated whether the sample was vital or merely inert chemistry.
Similaralive, living, live, animate, lively
Oppositeinert, lifeless, dead, inanimate
Note
A literary use in which the adjective simply means alive. Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) has spirits "vital in every part", and Emerson's "Self-Reliance" (1841) resolves to go "upright and vital". In Pope's Iliad, a dart that "pierced a vital part" sits on the border with the life-sustaining meaning. Live and kicking are the plainer words for the same idea.
Practice
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Origin
It came through Middle English and Old French from Latin vītālis ("of life, life-giving"), from vīta ("life"), which in turn comes from vīvō ("I live").